Voters should stop demanding free T-shirts and instead insist on better service delivery, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema said on Thursday.

"My people, stop loving T-shirts. Our country has been sold for T-shirts," Malema told residents of Kanana in Hammanskraal.

"Ask me to fight for education and housing. They have been giving you T-shirts since 1994  but still no jobs."

Malema said people needed to remember that their children could not eat those shirts, but needed food to be put on the table. Instead of T-shirts, he was offering the truth, he said.

"I don't buy votes with T-shirts or food parcels. I speak the truth wether you like it or not," he said.

The time had come for South Africans to stop voting for the ANC out of pity for those who went into exile or were killed during the fight against apartheid. He said the upcoming elections were more important than the country's first democratic elections.

"In 1994 we voted for the ANC because they went to exile and prison. Now it's time to vote for our future," he said.